The Government of Bangladesh has made significant progress in reducing casualties from extreme events or disasters in last couple of decades, with support from development partners. Policy improvement and investments in multi-purpose disaster shelters, Early Warning Systems (EWSs), and government capacity to mitigate the risks and impacts of extreme natural events have been proved to be effective in reducing losses to lives and assets. There is a need to further develop and extend these investments in infrastructure and capacity enhancement to encompass a wider range of geographies and hazards, particularly riverine and flash floods in non-coastal areas in Bangladesh as climate change increases the risks and impacts. Hence, the GoB, thorough its implementing agency- Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) with financial assistance from the World Bank is preparing a project under the title ‘Resilient Infrastructure for Adaptation and Vulnerability Reduction (RIVER)’ with an aim to reduce the vulnerability of people in targeted communities to riverine and flash floods, improve the country’s capacity in disaster preparedness and response, and respond promptly in the event of any crisis or emergency.

The project area covers the most severely affected flood-prone districts in the Teesta-Brahmaputra-Jamuna (Nilpamari, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Bogura, Pabna, Sirajganj), Padma (Rajbari, Faridpur, Gopalganj, Madaripur), and Surma-Meghna river systems in the North East (Sunamganj, Habiganj), and these districts and concerned upazilas have been selected through Multi-criteria Analysis (MCA) by feasibility study. However, each of these areas, although similar, have important geographical and demographic differences.

There are four distinct components under the project: (i) Resilient flood shelters and community infrastructure: This component will finance land raising and construction of climate-resilient flood shelters in targeted flood-prone villages in non-coastal districts, installation of lightning protection systems, construction repair and/or rehabilitation of associated climate resilient shelter connecting and community roads, and resilient infrastructure as identified by the community including small scale climate resilient culverts and bridges, repair, rehabilitation of rural markets, repair and rehabilitation of landing stages (river jetties), and installation of solar powered street lights; (ii) Strengthening capacity for disaster preparedness and response and technical assistance: Finance will be provided for good and services to increase the capacity of LGED and communities to plan, manage, and recovery from floods, and strategic studies to increase long-term disaster and climate resilience; (iii) Project Management, Design and Supervision, Monitoring and Evaluation: This component will support the government in implementing the project, and in coordinating all project related activities, monitoring, technical assistance, and training; (iv) Contingency Emergency Response: This component will furnish unforeseen emergency needs, for which funds will be channelized to this component through re-allocation upon the Government’s request to support response and reconstruction.